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Bill Gates (Photo by J. Countess/WireImage)

A day before the start of the United Nations climate talks in Paris, Bill Gates is announcing the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, a group of more than 20 billionaires who have agreed to invest in innovative clean energy. “Our primary goal with the Coalition is as much to accelerate progress on clean energy as it is to make a profit,” Gates says in a post on his website.

Gates and world leaders will also be announcing an initiative called Mission Innovation, which Gates describes as “a commitment by more than ten countries to invest more in research on clean energy.” The 20 countries include the U.S., Brazil, China, Japan, Germany, France, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and many others. Each country pledges to double government investment in clean energy innovation and to be transparent about its clean energy research and development efforts.

Bill Gates has invested in clean energy in the past, but this is his most public statement to date. He is joined in the Breakthrough Energy Coalition by some billionaires who have been outspoken and committed to clean energy, including former hedge fund manager Tom Steyer and venture capitalists Vinod Khosla and John Doerr; all three men live in California. The coalition also includes members not closely tied to clean energy, including Nigerian cement titan Aliko Dangote (who is also Africa’s richest man), Indian industrialist Mukesh Ambani and Chinese e-commerce mogul Jack Ma, the CEO of Alibaba.

On his Facebook page, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg writes, "Priscilla and I are joining Bill Gates in launching the Breakthrough Energy Coalition to invest in new clean energy technologies."

Update Nov. 30, 6pm ET: Bill Gates told CNN that some of the coalition members will invest directly in energy technologies and others will invest through a fund that the coalition will create. Gates said that other people will likely join the coalition. Gates expects the coalition to fund over 100 companies over the next decade.

The operating principle of the coalition is that “the world needs widely available energy that is reliable, affordable, and does not produce carbon,” according to the coalition’s website. “The only way to accomplish that goal is by developing new tools to power the world.” The coalition is working with the countries that have agreed to the Mission Innovation initiative.

Gates and the other coalition members make it clear that the need for clean, affordable energy is not being met currently. "The urgency of climate change and the energy needs in the poorest parts of the world require an aggressive global program for zero-emission energy innovation," they say on the Breakthrough Energy Coalition website. "The new model will be a public-private partnership between governments, research institutions, and investors."

The coalition emphasizes that government-funded research has been successful in the past in space, defense, technology and medical research. But there is a hurdle to achieving the same level of success with clean energy, the coalition points out: "current governmental funding levels for clean energy are simply insufficient to meet the challenges before us."

The Breakthrough Energy Coalition site does not state the dollar amount that the private investors plan to put behind their new commitment, nor the time period over which they plan to invest. It does state that they will invest early, invest broadly, invest wisely, invest boldly and invest together.

Update Dec. 1, 2015: A spokesman for Bill Gates confirmed that Gates plans to invest $1 billion in clean energy companies over the next five years. The other billionaires and members of the coalition, which includes the University of California, are expected to invest at least a combined $1 billion over that same time period.